Underneath It All
by nygirl8
Summary: Edward has just moved to Forks. Bella is the leader of the popular crowd, and seems to be the most horrible girl in school. Can he see beneath the surface to who she really is?
1. Chapter 1

**EPOV**

My family walked into the Forks High School cafeteria. Even though this was another new school, another new first day, the cafeteria looked just like our last five schools. Gray tiles, white walls, students crowded around tables, laughing, talking. The noise slowly died as they registered our presence. The appearance of vampires could be shocking at times. When the five of us were together, I knew we made an impression.

We spotted an empty table and headed for it. As we passed by, I could hear the whispers beginning to start.

"Who are they?"

"They must be part of the new doctor's family."

"I heard that some of them are _together_. They're all foster kids."

"I heard…"

"I heard…"

"I heard…"

I smiled grimly as we settled in at our table. There was no originality here. Neither in their whispers nor their thoughts. A bunch of sexually-deprived teenagers, already coveting the new students. One boy seemed particularly enamored with Rosalie. I snickered as I listened to his thoughts. Emmett would break every bone in his body if he tried to act on them. Forget him, _Rosalie_ would break every bone in his body if he tried to act on them.

At my laughter, every eye at the table turned to me.

_Hearing anything interesting?_ Alice asked me silently.

I shook my head, glancing quickly around the cafeteria again. "The guys here seem to like you, Rose," I told her, still quietly laughing. "But they haven't gotten to know you yet."

Rose glared at me, her patrician features icy. "Yes, well, those girls over there are talking about your ass, Edward. I think one of them is planning to try to feel you up after lunch."

I laughed harder, looking over to the group that Rose was talking about. Ah, the popular crowd. As well-styled as you were going to find in Forks, three girls sat haughtily at one end of the table, three boys at the other. Two of the girls were deep in conversation about the new students, while the third applied makeup to her eyes.

"Bella, Bella!" One of the two tugged on the third's arm. "Look at those guys over there!"

So the third's name was Bella. She tugged her arm free from the girl's grasp, glaring at her as she ran a finger over her eye. She glanced in our direction, then glared at her friend again.

"You idiot! You made me mess up my eyeliner," she informed the girl scathingly. "For _them_? They're nothing special."

The girl's face fell at Bella's glacial tone. "Sorry Bella. I just thought…Weren't you talking about how there are never any new guys around here? And those guys are really _hot_," she breathed, her tone a bit awed.

This Bella girl tossed shiny brown hair over her shoulder as she replied, "Again, Jessica, nothing special. You've just been stuck in this rinky-dink town so long, your taste in guys isn't any good. If you manage to get into college, you'll see what I mean."

Always the same. The popular crowd wasn't kind to anyone, not even each other. I watched as Bella went back to her eyeliner and the other two continued talking excitedly about my family. Jessica's unhappiness at Bella's rebuke quickly faded as sexual fantasies about me rose in her mind. I choked back more laughter. Again, no originality. Sadly, there never was any in high school. College was a bit better, though not much.

_No trouble anywhere? _Jasper asked silently. That was, after all, my job at our new schools. Making sure all the students wouldn't bother us, figure out what we were.

I listened harder. The usual thoughts abounded, but nothing new. I winced at the particularly lewd thoughts of those two girls from earlier. I turned my attention to the third, but heard nothing. That didn't overly concern me. Girls like that were usually no more than empty-headed shells. Turning back to Jasper, I shook my head. "All good. What about on your end?"

Jasper closed his eyes, feeling the emotions swirling around him. Suddenly, his face contorted as if in pain. When his expression didn't disappear, Alice shook his arm. "Jasper! Jasper!"

His eyes opened slowly. "Sorry," he muttered. "That girl over there," at this, he inclined his head back over to the popular table, "is really…_dark_. That's messed up, man." He breathed in and out rapidly. Jasper's ability was overwhelming to him at times.

We all looked over to the table this time. "Which one?" Emmett asked.

"The one by herself," Jasper replied. I tried tuning in to her thoughts again, but nothing.

"Edward?" Alice looked at me.

"Nothing there, Alice. Never is with girls like that. Don't worry about it."

* * *

**BPOV**

They were looking at me. Why were they doing that? I hated it when people looked at me.

Despite what I had told Jessica a few minutes ago, they _were_ good-looking. Probably the most beautiful people I had ever seen. Especially the bronze-haired boy. At the moment, he was shaking his head as he spoke to his family. But they had all been looking at me. Why?

I pressed my lips together as I resolved that it didn't matter. I had developed a new persona since moving to Forks. It had been almost two years ago, October of freshman year. This new town had given me a new start, and for that I both loved and loathed it. Loved it for the fresh start. And loathed it because I loathed the new me.

I looked around at my table. My so-called friends. Jessica, Lauren, Mike, Tyler, Eric. I couldn't say that I particularly liked any of them. But I had decided after moving here that I would become part of the popular crowd. The popular crowd was safe. No one ever bothered them. No one hurt them. They were who I had wanted to be.

And now I was. In fact, I was their leader. I guess it was a better position than a follower. And it _was_ safe here. I protected myself behind a cold, bitchy exterior. The students of Forks, especially the guys, had learned not to bother me.

"Bella!" Evidently Jessica was recovered from our earlier conversation. "Your birthday's in five days! What do you want to do for it?"

My birthday? Right, it was coming up. Sixteen. My mom and I had had such big plans for my sixteenth birthday. I swallowed hard to fight the tears that had suddenly risen to my eyes. My mom had been so hurt when I had announced that I wanted to move to Forks. She didn't know why it was that I had to get away from Phoenix. And she didn't like the new me any more than I did.

I shrugged in response to Jessica's question. "I guess we should have a party," I replied unenthusiastically. Part of being popular was that there were certain expectations. A big party was expected for birthdays.

"Great!" Lauren chimed in. "We figured that was what you would want, so we started planning one already. It's going to be at Mike's house Friday night, starting at nine. His parents are going away for the weekend."

I nodded. "Sounds good."

"So do you want to come over to my house after school today to plan it?" Jessica asked brightly. "We can go shopping after. You'll need a new outfit for Friday!"

I groaned inwardly, but after my earlier remark I knew I had to. There was only so far a leader could push her followers before they rebelled. "Sure."

"Great!" they both squealed. Then they returned to their conversation about the new family. I sighed and turned back to my makeup.

* * *

**EPOV**

The bell rang just as I entered the biology classroom. I handed my schedule to the teacher, Mr. Banner, who signed it, muttering under his breath about "another slacker to teach". I suppressed a grin at this, for there was little this man was going to teach me that I already knew. Having taken innumerable biology classes in various high schools and attended medical school twice, I could have taught this class myself. Undoubtedly better than this disgusting man, whose thoughts were turning lustful about the teenage females in the room as he looked over the class to find me a seat.

He pointed to a seat in the back, where the brunette from lunch was sitting. "Edward, you can be Bella's lab partner." He muttered to himself, "at least until she runs him off like the last two."

I did grin at this. Unlike these mortal humans, the small brunette didn't intimidate me. I dropped down into the seat next to her, my books hitting the table with a loud thud. The girl ignored me, drawing circles in her notebook again and again.

I had been planning to ignore her, but my early-twentieth century politeness got the better of me. I turned to face her. "Hello, I'm Edward Cullen. You're Bella?"

She looked up at me, a sneer coming over her face. She was a pretty girl, slender with big brown eyes and that wealth of shiny hair. "Didn't Mr. Banner already tell you my name? No need to ask a question you already know the answer to." I raised my eyebrows at this, which just seemed to annoy her further. She tossed her hair and turned away, and I froze as her scent finally washed over me.

Her blood was the sweetest I had ever smelled, and my hands clenched on the lab bench as I fought not to give in to my animal instincts right there. Up front, Mr. Banner was droning on about the lab, but I didn't hear anything, as I shook with the overwhelming urge to kill the girl. Human blood…

But no! No! Carlisle would be so disappointed. Everyone would be so disappointed. We would have to leave immediately... My hands crushed the lab bench as I fought my instincts, turning away from the girl as I pictured my family.

"Edward? Edward?"

The girl was calling me. I turned toward her, leaning in closely as a war built inside me. Kill the girl, or leave her be? She shrank back as I leaned in, her eyes becoming frightened. Was I scaring her? Yes, I was.

I was pleased by this. How _dare_ this human come along and make me want her so badly? I had been good for so long. I leaned closer to her, breathing in her scent again as she repeated my name uneasily.

"Edward?"

* * *

**A/N: This is my return to fanfiction. I haven't written in a while, so please review! Of course, Twilight and all the characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I'm just playing with them for awhile...**


	2. Chapter 2

**BPOV**

I cowered back as my new lab partner loomed over me, his golden eyes turning black. With rage? I hadn't been especially kind to him, but what I had said wasn't that awful. Certainly I had said much worse in the past.

"Edward?"

And as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. He leaned back on his stool, turning away from me, and barking out a curt "What?" in my direction.

"The lab," I replied, pushing the microscope towards him. "We're identifying the phases of mitosis."

He glanced into the microscope, quickly determining the correct answer. "Metaphase." He inserted another slide and pushed it back over to me, meeting my eyes as I stared at him. "This one's yours."

I laughed incredulously, moving the microscope back to him. "Umm, no thanks. You don't understand how this school works. I don't _do_ this sort of thing."

He pushed it back at me, his velvety voice smooth as he informed me, "You do now. I don't think that Mr. Banner will be too happy if you go through three lab partners in three weeks of school."

I could feel my cheeks gradually turning red. How did he know about that? He was right, I probably didn't want to chase off a third. The lab was simple, I could do it easily enough. Unfortunately, it kind of went against the popular code. Generally, our crowd didn't do very well in school. It was a rule I didn't entirely understand – maybe we were supposed to be above caring about such things? But it was _not_ a rule that could be broken.

So in classes, I was careful to never show that I actually liked school. I couldn't _quite_ bring myself to sabotage my grades completely– I still did well on papers and tests – but the in-class stuff usually brought me to a B in most classes. The fact that all my teachers hated me didn't help either.

Edward was still looking at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes, lowering my head to look into the microscope. "Telophase," I mumbled, identifying the slide just as quickly as he had. I shoved the microscope back in his direction, watching as he glanced quickly into the microscope himself before jotting it down on our lab notes. I frowned, seeing that. Why bother making me help with the lab anyway, if he thought I was a moron whose results couldn't be trusted?

He quickly did the next slide, then pushed it back to me for the fourth. I shook my head, pushing it back to me. He sighed, sliding it back to me. "I told you, we're splitting the work. You do this one."

I stared at him, unblinking. "Clearly I'm an idiot, so why don't you just save yourself the bother of checking? You can do them all."

* * *

**EPOV**

I stared at my lab partner in disbelief. First she refuses to do the work, now she's angry that I checked it? How was it possible that one small human could be so infuriating? "I won't authenticate this one," I promised.

She sighed, her long hair falling around her face as she bent to the microscope again. "Prophase," she said quietly. I quickly did the fifth. It was indeed anaphase, the only remaining answer. We sat in silence, our completed lab sheet in front of us, until Mr. Banner came over. He nodded at our results, then looked at Bella sternly. "Is this lab a product of Mr. Cullen's _and_ your work, Ms. Swan?"

I could hear the doubts in his mind about this, and quickly jumped in before Bella could say anything. "Yes sir. I did three, she did two."

He looked at me suspiciously, but decided not to voice his thoughts aloud. "Alright, well, I guess you two can go then."

Hearing his words, my lab partner gathered her bag and fairly flew out of the room. Unfortunately for her, the quick exit was marred by the fact that she banged her side into our lab table as she left. I smiled, because I knew why she was so desperate to leave. She wanted to get away from me. I could have caught up with her easily, of course, but I opted not to further tempt myself today. Instead I sat there, mulling over the strong appeal this girl's blood had to me. No human had ever so thoroughly tested my control. But I hadn't snapped. No, I had sat next to her for a half-hour, and…

Then it hit me. I had sat next to her for a half-hour, _and heard nothing_. Even this shallow human must have had _one _thought in that time period. My head jerked up, looking to the door she had used to exit. Who _was_ this girl?

*****

At the day's end, I met up with my family in the school parking lot. After spending an entire day with humans, nobody looked particularly happy. Even normally jovial Emmett glowered at everyone who passed.

"Emmett, stop intimidating our new classmates," I told him as I unlocked my Volvo.

He scowled, his huge frame now safely inside the car. "I can't help it, man. You should have seen all the guys here hitting on Rose today. I was ready to-"

"But you wouldn't have," Alice cut him off. "Because we have to blend in here. Remember? _Blend in_."

"I can't help it, Alice," Emmett complained. "The kids at this school are freaks. I don't know what it is, but they're more forward, louder, more annoying, more-"

"More sexually deprived," Jasper interrupted. "Way more." He looked at Alice, as the rest of us snickered. We all knew what they were going to be doing once we got home.

But I couldn't argue with either of my siblings. Thinking back to my tiny lab partner, it was hard not to think that there was something in the water here. Why couldn't I hear her?

_Edward_, Alice called to me. _Did you see that girl from lunch again today? The "dark" one?_

I gave a barely imperceptible nod, my hopes rising that someone had found out something about this frustrating creature. I didn't believe she presented any danger to us, but it was still maddening not to be able to read her thoughts. I had become so used to being able to know everything about everyone around me.

_I met her in the girl's bathroom today. And I keep seeing her in my visions_, Alice told me. _But I don't __**see**__ anything. She's just __**there**__, and then she disappears. But she sort of darts around when my visions involve you. Did you talk to her?_

I stifled a grin. I wouldn't exactly call me forcing her to do our science lab "talking". I shrugged at Alice. We needed to speak later, but I knew she wouldn't be available for hours after we got home. Jasper tended to need a lot of attention after first days.

Which was fine. It would give me time to go talk to Carlisle about the strange human. It was unheard of for vampire's gifts not to work on humans. Perhaps he would have an idea as to why.

**

* * *

BPOV**

Once I made my escape from disastrous biology, I made my way to the girl's bathroom. Raising my shirt, I winced at the evidence of my less than graceful encounter with the lab bench. My side was already red and swollen. That was going to bruise.

I heard the words spoken, and blinked rapidly, dropping my shirt back down to cover myself. Had I said that aloud? Then I saw them. The new girls, almost hidden from view, off to the side of the bathroom. The one who had verbalized my thoughts, a pixie with spiky black hair, bounced forward cheerfully.

"I'm Alice!" she greeted me. "And this is my sister Rose."

"Rosalie," the girl corrected haughtily. They were even more beautiful up close, with the same pale skin and golden eyes as my new lab partner. The pixie was, as pixies were wont to be, small and slender, wearing ballet flats and a dress that I could tell was designer. Her sister was dressed in the same type of expensive clothing, but was tall and statuesque, with long blond hair.

"You're Bella, right?" the pixie asked me, still bouncing.

A bit dumbfounded, I nodded. Why was this new girl speaking to me? It was a benefit of my popularity – people didn't usually talk to me unless I spoke to them first. I flitted through school silent and unbothered, exactly how I liked it. Okay, maybe flitted was the wrong word. More like stumbled. And now here was this new girl, talking to me like she knew me. No one here knew me. I made sure of that.

"I can tell we're going to be friends, Bella!" Alice exclaimed excitedly, her musical voice cheerful. "I love this school already, don't you, Rose?" she asked, turning to look at her sister.

I felt my eyebrows rise at her statement. We were going to be friends? I didn't have friends, and I didn't want any. I wouldn't call my clique friends. More like…a group of people who joined together out of mutual benefit.

Yes, that was it.

I wanted to say something crushing, but found I didn't have it in me today to squash the pixie's exuberant mood. So I just mumbled an affirmative answer and turned back to the mirror, pulling out my makeup again. It was my perfect safety device, when the alternative was to stand around looking uncomfortable. All the makeup took forever to remove after school every day.

"So, Bella!" Alice began happily. "Would you want to go shopping with us sometime?"

I paused in my ministrations in the mirror, my eyes widening in horror. I didn't need to do any more shopping, thank you very much. I did enough of that with Jessica and Lauren. Besides, what was this girl doing anyway, inviting me on a shopping trip five minutes after meeting me? I needed to get away from her. Luckily I had a plan. Summoning up my nerve, I tucked my makeup back in my bag and turned to face her again.

"Why was your family staring at me during lunch today?"

**

* * *

A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed my first chapter. Right now I'm keeping my updates short, in order to get them out faster, but once I have more time, they WILL be longer! Please take a moment to review, it keeps me inspired!**


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